Former Facebook Employee's Father Is Found After Going Missing For 48 Hours

Josh Williams, a well known entrepreneur and former
co-founder and CEO of location-based checkin service Gowalla's
father has gone missing.

Williams sold Gowalla to Facebook in 2011. He worked at
Facebook for two years, and is now doing a new company.

According to aFacebook pagehe set up about the search,
Mark Williams unexpectedly left his home in Texarkana, Texas on
Saturday evening and failed to return.

He is a cancer patient, on
medication, and Williams worries he may be disoriented and
unaware of his surroundings.

He was driving a 2010 White
Toyota Tundra Crew Max truck, Texas license plate DDZ9707. And
his phone was located at a truck stop at I-30 and Highway 108
near the Texarkana Airport. Security camera footage indicates
that he could have been heading north across state lines.

He’s about six feet tall with
brown eyes.

Williams worries he could be
anywhere in Texas, Arkansas or Louisiana and has desperately been
tweeting about the disappearance since yesterday
afternoon.

He has reached out to
authorities who have put out a Silver Alert, a statewide public
notification for missing senior citizens, and is also checking
with hospitals across Texas. They have asked
anyone with any information on Mark's whereabouts to
call 682-235-8375.

In the meantime, members of the
tech community have been offering support to Williams on Twitter,
trying to keep his spirit up.

Ryan Hoover, founder of Product
Hunt, tweeted
that he was sorry to hear the news, and Adam Bain, Global
President of Revenue and Partnerships at Twitter, created a free
targeted ad
campaign on Twitter to help get the word out.

Facebook also promoted
Williams’ Facebook post and has been tweeting
about the disappearance from their corporate Facebook design
department handle. Williams worked as a product manager at
Facebook from 2012 to mid-2013.

“There's been a lot of angst in
Silicon Valley about the tech community lately, but you all have
been champs today. Thank you,” Williams tweeted
last night.

UPDATE: Josh Williams' father has been found. After over 48
hours of searching, Mark Williams was located and
brought home safely. He is in stable condition and
uninjured.

"We're overjoyed to have found dad. He is safe and in good
spirits. I cannot thank you all enough. This could have had
a different ending, and truth be told I expected the worst
earlier. To all of you who helped spread the word, thank
you," Josh Williams wrote on Facebook and
Twitter.